Chapter 16
Land Allotment for Ephraim
16:1 The allotment of the people of Joseph went from the Jordan by Jericho, east of the waters of Jericho, into the wilderness, going up from Jericho into the hill country to Bethel. 2 Then going from Bethel to Luz, it passes along to Ataroth, the territory of the Archites. 3 Then it goes down westward to the territory of the Japhletites, as far as the territory of Lower Beth-horon, then to Gezer, and it ends at the sea.
Due to Joseph’s sons being adopted by Jacob they were then qualified to receive land inheritances. The total land inheritance for the tribe of Joseph was divided into three territories, one on the east side of the Jordan River that was already allocated (half of the tribe of Manasseh, see Joshua 13:29-31) and two on the west side of the river, which is being described in this chapter. The borders would roughly be to the east the Jordan River, to the south Bethel, and to the west the Mediterranean Sea. The northern boundary will be later identified in Joshua 17:7 (north to Asher) and Joshua 17:10-11 (boundaries with Asher, Issachar, including the cities of Beth-shean, En-dor, Taanach, and Megiddo in the north).
16:4 The people of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, received their inheritance.
These are not three different land inheritances, Manasseh and Ephraim make up the tribe of Joseph, all three are listed since Joseph is the son of Jacob (Israel). Even though there are thirteen tribes with fourteen names, the listing of the tribes in the Bible vary as each list only names twelve tribes (which means that there is always some tribe missing, click here to read more).
This chapter begins with the allotment to the tribe of Joseph as a whole (both Manasseh and Ephraim tribes together, the remaining verses will review Ephraim’s allotment and the following chapter will primarily review the western half tribe of Manasseh’s allotment.
16:5 The territory of the people of Ephraim by their clans was as follows: the boundary of their inheritance on the east was Ataroth-addar as far as Upper Beth-horon, 6 and the boundary goes from there to the sea. On the north is Michmethath. Then on the east the boundary turns around toward Taanath-shiloh and passes along beyond it on the east to Janoah, 7 then it goes down from Janoah to Ataroth and to Naarah, and touches Jericho, ending at the Jordan. 8 From Tappuah the boundary goes westward to the brook Kanah and ends at the sea. Such is the inheritance of the tribe of the people of Ephraim by their clans, 9 together with the towns that were set apart for the people of Ephraim within the inheritance of the Manassites, all those towns with their villages.
The approximate boundaries for Ephraim included Michmethath to the north, Janoath down to Jericho on the east, Ataroth-addar and Upper Beth-horon to the south, and the brook Kanah to the west.
16:10 However, they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites have lived in the midst of Ephraim to this day but have been made to do forced labor.
Although further south, the city of Gezer was included in Ephraim’s inheritance. We see that the Canaanites living in Gezer were not driven out, but unlike other cities that the Israelites were unable to purge, these inhabitants were made to do forced labor, they became slaves (see Judges 1:28-35). This verse implies they failed to follow God’s command (see Deuteronomy 20:10-18), which will later be identified as disobedience (see Judges 2:1-3; 3:5-6; 10:6).
The Septuagint offers a very different account, verse ten reads, “And Ephraim did not destroy the Canaanites living in Gezer. So the Canaanites continued living in Ephraim until this day, until Pharaoh the king of Egypt came up and captured it and burned it with fire. As for the Canaanites and the Perizzites and those who lived in Gezer, they massacred them. And Pharaoh gave the land as a dowry to his daughter.”[1] Which aligns with 1 Kings 9:15-17 account about how the Pharaoh of Egypt gave Solomon the city of Gezer as a dowry for marrying his daughter.
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[1] Brannan, R., Penner, K. M., Loken, I., Aubrey, M., & Hoogendyk, I., eds. (2012). The Lexham English Septuagint (Jos 16:10). Lexham Press.